Foodwise Articles

Why donate surplus food?

Surplus produce occurs for many reasons:

blemishes/imperfections

short shelf/sale life

over-ordering/over-catering

demands for perfect produce.

Taking into consideration that you have done all you can to ﬁrstly reduce your food waste levels, the next step is to understand your available food donation options, and to then implement a practical food donation solution.

Donating surplus food enables your business to directly provide beneﬁts to people who are living in disadvantaged circumstances whilst having a positive impact on the environment.

The beneﬁts to your business from food donation include:

saving on your waste disposal costs

providing food directly to people in need

impacting positively on staff morale

reducing the volume of food in landﬁll

helping you to achieve your business’s environmental targets.

Food redistribution organisations such as Foodbank, OzHarvest and SecondBite support large and small welfare agencies who provide various forms of emergency food relief – from breakfast programs for kids who go to school hungry, right through to community kitchens that provide daily meals for people who are homeless or living with disadvantage.

So if you have surplus food, why not redistribute it instead of just sending it to landﬁll? The positive impact this decision can have is the best option for your business, the community, and the environment.

Donating your surplus or leftover food to charities can achieve four key outcomes: